Sci Fi and Fantasy by Women

Every few years, I develop a new preference for one genre over all others. I call it my “bread-and-butter” genre, and at least half the books I read will be part of it. My b-n-b genre of the last year or so has been (mostly) epic fantasy written by women. I’ll share just a few of my favorites in the genre with you. Better yet, these are all series starters so, if you like the first book, there’s more enjoyment to be had. Happy reading!

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross

Rebecca Ross accomplishes what so few authors can: a feeling of magic that weaves through the pages of a book, until you feel enchanted through reading it. Ross’ fantasy Scotland is a place worth visiting again and again. I only hope she continues to write in this world.

Jack Tamerlaine hasn't stepped foot on Cadence in ten long years, content to study music at the mainland university. But when young girls start disappearing from the isle, Jack is summoned home to help find them. Enchantments run deep on Cadence: gossip is carried by the wind, plaid shawls can be as strong as armor, and the smallest cut of a knife can instill fathomless fear. The capricious spirits that rule the isle by fire, water, earth, and wind find mirth in the lives of the humans who call the land home. Adaira, heiress of the east and Jack's childhood enemy, knows the spirits only answer to a bard's music, and she hopes Jack can draw them forth by song, enticing them to return the missing girls. As Jack and Adaira reluctantly work together, they find they make better allies than rivals as their partnership turns into something more. 

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty

Any story that features djinn will get my attention. Add Chakraborty’s prose that sucks you in as if by magic, and I’m a lifelong fan. Amina starts off Chakraborty’s second trilogy. The City of Brass is a great starting point, too, but either one can be read first: they’re not related.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean's most notorious pirates, she's survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural. But when she's tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she's offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade's kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family's future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God's will.

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb

This is an old favorite that I read way back in the early 2000s. Our library still carries it in print because it’s a fantasy classic full of swashbuckling adventure in sentient ships. This is one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time.

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships—rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. Now the fortunes of one of Bingtown’s oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy. For Althea’s young nephew, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard the Vivacia, the ship is a life sentence. But the fate of the ship—and the Vestrits—may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider: the ruthless buccaneer captain Kennit, who plans to seize power over the Pirate Isles by capturing a liveship and bending it to his will.

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

This is the only Young Adult title on today’s list, and trust me when I tell you it is wild. Giant mecha, backstabbing politics, romance, revenge: Iron Widow will surprise until the last page.

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall of China. It doesn't matter that the girls die from the mental strain. When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But when she gets her vengeance, it becomes clear that she is an Iron Widow, a rare kind of female pilot who can sacrifice males to power up Chrysalises instead.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

If you love a great space opera, or an intricate mystery, this is the book for you. It requires a commitment from the reader to pay good attention to the cultures, technologies, and history, but the payoff is more than worth it.

During a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court, Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident--or that Mahit might be next to die. Now Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion--all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret--one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life--or rescue it from annihilation.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Any fantasy series with a cameo from Baba Yaga has me from the start. Like Rebecca Ross, Katherine Arden is such a masterful author that enchantment runs through the pages of her books. This is the start of a series you will love to read.

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift--a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, Pytor hides the gift away and Vasya grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that, armed only with the necklace, she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Lots of fantasies feature sentient spaceships, but this is the only one I've read that answers the question, "What motivates an AI to protect humans?" with "Love."

Now isolated in a single frail human body, Breq, an artificial intelligence that used to control a massive starship and its crew of soldiers, tries to adjust to her new humanity while seeking vengeance and answers to her questions.

- by Katie, Hopewell Branch